Blizzard Entertainment announces December 7 is the release date for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, the highly anticipated next expansion for their MMORPG. The standard edition for Windows and OS X will be $39.99 USD, and there's also a retail-only Collector's Edition with bonus items which will be $79.99 USD. "Cataclysm includes the best content we've ever created for World of Warcraft. Itís not just an expansion, but a re-creation of much of the original Azeroth, complete with epic new high-level adventures for current players and a redesigned leveling experience for those just starting out," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "With the help of our beta testers, we're putting on the final polish, and we look forward to welcoming gamers around the world to enjoy it in just a couple of months." Those interested in participating in Cataclysm beta testing can still signup through Battle.net.

First expansion I won't be buying, it went way to casual for me with Wrath of the lich king

Not sure why you'd skip it, then. If you've been paying any attention to the beta at all, they seem to be trying very hard to pull the pendulum back to the center, somewhere between Burning Crusade's brutal endgame and Wrath's anti-social facerolling. If anything they seem to be tilting more toward the BC side, going back to requiring a modicum of actual skill to survive dungeons.